In addition to recordings of the standard classical repertoire, he has recorded a wide variety of folk music such as American bluegrass music, traditional Chinese melodies, the tangos of Argentinian composer Ástor Piazzolla, and Brazilian music. He also collaborated with Grammy Award-winning jazz/reggae singer Bobby McFerrin. During their controversial tour of 2005-6, Ma backed them playing cello as sideman for the Dixie Chicks, assisting in the string arrangements for the band.

Ma's primary performance instrument is a Montagnana cello built in 1733 valued at US$2.5 million.

Yo-Yo Ma was born in Paris on October 7, 1955, to Chinese parents and had a musical upbringing. His mother, Marina Lu, was a singer and his father, Hiao-Tsiun Ma, was a violinist and professor of music at Nanjing National Central University (predecessor of the present-day Nanjing University). The family moved to New York when he was five years old.

However, even before that time, Ma had steadily gained fame and had performed with many of the world's major orchestras. His recordings and performances of Johann Sebastian Bach's Cello Suites recorded in 1983 and again in 1994–1997 are particularly acclaimed.[citation needed] He has also played chamber music, often with the pianist Emanuel Ax, with whom he has a close friendship back from their days together at the Juilliard School of Music in New York.

Ma received his bachelor's degree from Harvard in 1976.[8] In 1991, he received an honorary doctorate from Harvard.[9]

Ma was named Peace Ambassador by then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in January 2006.[10] He is a founding member of the influential Chinese-American Committee of 100, which addresses the concerns of Americans of Chinese heritage.[11]

Ma currently plays with his own Silk Road Ensemble, which has the goal of bringing together musicians from diverse countries all of which are historically linked via the Silk Road. He records on the Sony Classical label. He also founded the Silk Road Connect, which involved children from middle schools such as JHS 185 in Queens, New York.[17]

Ma's primary performance instrument is the cello nicknamed "Petunia", built by Domenico Montagnana in 1733. It was named this by a female student who approached him after one of his classes in Salt Lake City asking if he had a nickname for his cello. He said, "No, but if I play for you, will you name it?" She chose Petunia and it stuck.[19] This cello, more than 280 years old and valued at US$2.5 million, was lost in the fall of 1999 when Ma accidentally left the instrument in a taxicab in New York City.[20] It was later recovered undamaged.

Another of Ma's cellos, the Davidov Stradivarius, was previously owned by Jacqueline du Pré, who passed it to him upon her death. Though Du Pré previously voiced her frustration with the "unpredictability" of this cello, Yo-Yo Ma attributed the comment to du Pré's impassioned style of playing, adding that the Stradivarius cello must be "coaxed" by the player.[21] It was until recently set up in a Baroque manner, since Ma exclusively played Baroque music on it. He also owns a modern cello made by Peter and Wendela Moes of Peissenberg, Germany, and one of carbon fiber by the Luis and Clark company of Boston.[22]

On May 3, 2009, Ma performed the world premiere of Bruce Adolphe's "Self Comes to Mind" for solo cello and two percussionists with John Ferrari and Ayano Kataoka at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The work is based on a poetic description written for the composer of the evolution of brain into mind by neuroscientist Antonio Damasio and featured, at the premiere, a film of brain scans provided by Hanna Damasio and other images, coordinated with the music during the performance.

On October 3, 2009, Ma appeared alongside Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the National Arts Centre gala in Ottawa. Harper, a fan of The Beatles, played the piano and sang a rendition of "With A Little Help From My Friends" while Ma accompanied him on his cello. On October 16, 2011, he performed at the memorial for Steve Jobs held in Stanford University's Memorial Church.[26]

In 2011, Ma performed with American dancer Charles "Lil Buck" Riley in the United States and in China at the U.S.-China Forum on the Arts and Culture.[27]

Ma was often invited to press events by Apple Inc. and Pixar CEO Steve Jobs and has performed on stage during event keynote presentations, as well as appearing in a commercial for the Macintosh computer. Ma's Bach recordings were used in a memorial video released by Apple on the first anniversary of Jobs's death.[29]

According to research done by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. for the PBS series Faces of America, a relative had hidden the Ma family genealogy in his home in China to save it from destruction during the Cultural Revolution. His paternal ancestry can be traced back eighteen generations to the year 1217. This genealogy had been compiled in the 18th century by an ancestor, tracing everyone with the surname Ma, through the paternal line, back to one common ancestor in the 3rd century BC. Ma's generation name, Yo, had been decided by his fourth great grand-uncle, Ma Ji Cang, in 1755.[33][34]

Ma's albums include recordings of cello concertos (including, among others, Shostakovich, Brahms, Elgar, and Haydn), sonatas for cello and piano, Bach's cello suites, and a variety of chamber music. He has also recorded in non-classical styles, notably in collaboration with Bobby McFerrin on their 1992 Sony album, "Hush".[36]